the Foundation provides funds for the reno\'ation and equipment of the re- 

 search laboratories of graduate schools. 



(4) In the operation of its program, the National Science Foundation has 

 sought to hold to a minimum the burdens imposed upon academic institutions. 

 Administrative requirements on grantees, fellows and contractors are the 

 minimum consonant with accountability and responsibility for public funds. 

 In the last analysis, however, the scientific and academic communities must 

 be the final judge of the extent to which Federal support has been given 

 without interference in internal affairs or burdensome controls. During its 

 first ten years of operation the Foundation has had no serious complaints on 

 this score. 



(5) The Foundation has found its responsibilities to the President and 

 the Congress in no wise incompatible with its independence and freedom of 

 operation. Congress in its wisdom endowed the Foundation with an un- 

 usually broad charter. It is so broad, in fact, that the Foundation from time 

 to time has had to place its own interpretation on its Act and to make policy 

 decisions regarding what not to do. This wide latitude has enabled the 

 Foundation to approach the immense and challenging problems of modern 

 science in innovational and experimental ways. 



The Director enjoys cordial working relationships with the Special Assist- 

 ant to the President and with the President's Science Advisory Committee. 

 Whenever circumstances require it, he has direct access to the President. The 

 Director is a member of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, the 

 Federal Council on Science and Technology, a consultant to the President's 

 Science Advisory Committee and a member of the Defense Science Board. 



The foregoing summary probably represents the extent to which we are 

 able to comment on the success with which these five fundamentals have 

 been met. A more complete judgment must await the perspective of history. 



So far as the operations of the Foundation are concerned, these have been 

 substantially covered in the course of commenting on the major recommenda 

 tions of Science, the Endless Frontier. Upon examination, the Foundation s 

 programs, particularly in the area of research support and education in the 

 sciences, will be found to correspond closely with the principal recommenda- 

 tions of Science, the Endless Frontier. 



An extremelv troublesome and difficult problem is the Foundation's relation 

 to the development of national science policv and to the e\'aluation and corre- 

 lation functions. The National Science Foundation Act authorizes and directs 

 the Foundation — 



to develop and encourage the pursuit of a national poHcy for the promotion of basic 

 research and education in the sciences; 



to evaluate scientific research programs undertaken by agencies of the Federal Govern- 

 ment, and to correlate the Foundation's scientific research programs with those under- 

 taken by individuals and by public and pri\'ate research groups; . . . 



The number and variety of Federal research programs prompted the Foun- 

 dation at the outset to consider what should be the responsibilities of the 

 several Federal agencies with respect to the support of extramural research and 

 de\'elopment in the sciences. After conferences bv NSF staff members with 

 the Bureau of the Budget and other agencies, the Foundation's primary 



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